Suman Ghosh (left) celebrates with teammate Akeem Abolanle after scoring Tollygunge Agragami’s second goal against East Bengal in their Super Division match on Thursday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: When Kabijit Khotel’s scorching left-footer, just seconds away from time, earned Tollygunge Agragami more than a deserved 3-3 draw against East Bengal in their CFL Super Division clash, his teammate Akeem Abolanle told his coach: “God is great.”

The Nigerian striker’s comment aptly summed up the emotions, if not the disappointment, of his team.

Taking advantage of East Bengal’s defensive lapses, Tollygunge opened a two-goal lead inside the first 24 minutes, thanks to Akeem and Suman Ghosh. East Bengal, the defending champions, managed to pull one back when Suley Musah made special his return to the team after a two-year injury lay-off, heading home a Douglas da Silva offer from the goalline in the 34th minute.

The real drama unfolded in the second half and referee Subrata Das quickly fit himself into the protagonist’s role. In the 63rd minute, he first awarded a penalty for the home team. Dipankar Roy, chancing upon a Debkumar Sasmal back-pass, tried to dodge past Isiaka Awoyemi. He apparently fell while controlling the ball, but Das immediately pointed at the dreaded spot, and booked the Nigerian defender for pushing Dipankar. Chandan Das converted the penalty.

Then came East Bengal’s surprise lead in the 77th minute, which also remained controversial. When Musah met a Douglas cross from the deep, he was clearly in off-side position. So was Nitin Pradhan when he pulled his head towards the ball after Musah’s attempt from the opposite end was missed by goalkeeper Samit Debnath.

Tollygunge players rushed to assistant referee Sudip Banerjee, protesting his decision. Akeem and Isiaka even refused to return to the field while those present on the field didn’t show any interest to set the ball rolling from the central circle.

With just 13 minutes to go, Tollygunge players, with frustration writ large on their faces, finally agreed to play after persuasion from coach Biswajit Das and club officials. But very few could have anticipated the final twist to the drama, when Khotel won the ball from Sasthi Duley on the right. He took two East Bengal defenders Sandip Das and Madhab Das in his stride and unleashed a pile-driver from the edge of the box. Amar Deb had no answer to it, and, as Khotel later said, “poetic justice was finally done to us.”

East Bengal coach Subhas Bhowmick admitted after the match that it was a “bad day in office”. “The entire team flopped today…. even the team management. Amar wanted to be replaced and I sent the manager with a replacement (Subhashish Roy Chowdhury). But it was not carried out as I was told then that Amar had changed his mind. Later I came to know, it was not true,” he revealed.

The Tollygunge camp wore a dejected look. “You have seen it all. The referee denied us a deserved win,” said a club official. Referee Das, however, refused to speak to the reporters. He booked seven players, including five from Tollygunge.

East Bengal and Tollygunge ended their Super Division engagements with 29 and 22 points, respectively, en route to their progress to the Super Six.

The match could also have been scripted in favour of Tollygunge Agragami custodian Arindam Ghosh, who put up a valiant fight against the three-pronged East Bengal attack in the beginning. He brilliantly denied Dipankar and Shylo Malsawmtluanga in one-to-one positions. It’s unfortunate he left the field injured while challenging Musah at the stroke of half-time.

But Das took centrestage, overshadowing all the bravehearts, till Khotel’s last-gasp masterpiece ensured poetic justice was done to the right team.

TEAMS

East Bengal: Amar Deb; Surya Bikash Chakraborty (Nitin Pradhan), Madhab Das, Sandip Das; Sasthi Duley, Chandan Das, Dipankar Roy, Shylo Malsawmtluanga; Syed Rahim Nabi, Suley Musah, Douglas da Silva.

Tollygunge Agragami: Arindam Ghosh (Samit Debnath, 45), Kabijit Khotel, Isiaka Awoyemi, Debkumar Sasmal, Saumik Dey, Suman Ghosh (Ramu Adhikari 65), Dinesh Swar, Chinmoy Sarkar, Gauranga Dutta, Surajit Basu (Pankaj Basak 88), Akeem Abolanle.

Referee: Subrata Das.